Chapter 5 - The Man Who Refused to Stay Dead
We dragged Samuel behind a concrete divider.
Marcus fired toward the opposite building while Victor called our backup team.
Claire crawled toward her father.
“Dad.”
Samuel stared at her.
“My God.”
“You’re alive.”
“I know.”
That was apparently the wrong answer.
Claire slapped him.
Hard.
Even under gunfire, everybody went quiet for half a second.
Samuel touched his cheek.
“I deserved that.”
“You let me bury you.”
“I know.”
“Mom died thinking you were dead.”
Pain crossed his face.
“I know.”
“Stop saying that!”
Another bullet punched through a window.
I grabbed Claire.
“Family reunion later.”
She glared.
Samuel almost laughed.
Definitely her father.
We moved through the rear loading corridor and escaped into our vehicles.
Once we were on the highway, nobody spoke for several minutes.
Claire sat across from Samuel.
Her arms folded.
Her eyes bright with rage.
Finally:
“Start.”
Samuel looked at me.
Claire snapped, “Not him. Me.”
He nodded.
Fourteen years earlier, Samuel Whitman had worked as a trauma surgeon attached to a military humanitarian logistics program.
Medical flights moved supplies through Europe, the Middle East, and several private U.S. contractors.
Some manifests were fake.
Crates marked as medical equipment contained weapon components.
Samuel reported it.
His commander told him to stay quiet.
He didn’t.
“Dominic Rourke approached me,” Samuel said.
I stiffened.
“He was already involved?”
“Yes.”
“What did he want?”
“The files.”
Claire asked, “So you disappeared.”
“I was told you and your mother would be killed if I didn’t.”
“And you believed them?”
Samuel looked devastated.
“They sent photographs of you at school.”
Claire looked away.
“I changed my identity. I moved constantly. I collected evidence.”
“While Mom raised me alone.”
“Yes.”
“While she got sick.”
“Yes.”
“While I dropped out of my fellowship to care for her.”
Samuel’s eyes filled.
“I watched from a distance.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“That’s supposed to make it better?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Samuel continued.
Years later, St. Gabriel Medical Center was being used to treat people injured during illegal shipments.
Samuel anonymously sent records to one doctor he believed would understand them.
Claire.
“You sent me those files?”
“Yes.”
“I thought they were research.”
“I know.”
“That’s why my department got targeted.”
“Yes.”
Claire stood.
“You used me.”
Samuel didn’t deny it.
I moved before she could hit him again.
Not to protect Samuel.
Because Emma had started teaching me violence wasn’t always the first useful answer.
Claire sat again.
Samuel whispered, “I thought if the files were inside a legitimate hospital system, Dominic couldn’t erase them.”
“He bombed the hospital.”
“I underestimated him.”
“Twenty-three people died.”
“I know.”
Claire began crying silently.
Samuel looked destroyed.
Then he said:
“Elena found me after the bombing.”
I leaned forward.
“How?”
“She traced one of the relief contracts through your port records.”
“What did you tell her?”
“Everything.”
“Did she know Dominic planned to kill her?”
“She suspected.”
“You should have warned me.”
“She said you would respond with war.”
“She was right.”
“That was the problem.”
I hated how many dead people apparently understood me perfectly.
Samuel removed a small metal key from beneath his shirt.
“What’s that?”
“The archive Elena mentioned.”
“Where?”
“Not here.”
“Then where?”
He looked at Claire.
“St. Gabriel.”
She stared.
“The hospital is a burned shell.”
“Underneath it.”
There was a sub-basement beneath the surgical wing.
Sealed before investigators finished examining the building.
Samuel hid the complete records there.
Names.
Contracts.
Bank routes.
Military procurement information.
Dominic’s partners.
Enough to destroy far more than my organization.
Victor asked, “Why send us to the storage facility?”
“I didn’t.”
Everyone stopped.
“What?” I asked.
Samuel pointed toward the coordinates on Victor’s phone.
“Dominic did.”
“Then how were you here?”
Samuel looked confused.
“I received a message from Claire.”
Claire went pale.
“I never sent you anything.”
We all understood at the same time.
Dominic had brought Samuel and Claire to the same place.
He wanted us together.
Marcus said, “Why?”
My phone rang.
Ashford House.
Harper.
I answered.
“Dad?”
Her voice trembled.
“What happened?”
“The power went out.”
I stood.
“Where’s Emma?”
“With Mrs. Bell.”
“Lock yourselves in the safe room.”
“We tried.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
“The code doesn’t work.”
Victor was already calling security.
Harper whispered:
“Someone changed it.”
Then a man’s voice entered the call.
“Hello, Adrian.”
Dominic.
Everything in me went still.
“Where are my daughters?”
“Safe.”
“If you touch them—”
“I’m not interested in your daughters.”
“Then what?”
“Bring Samuel.”
Samuel closed his eyes.
Dominic continued.
“And Claire.”
“No.”
“Then perhaps little Emma gets to practice being silent again.”
Claire grabbed my phone.
“Dominic.”
He laughed.
“Dr. Whitman.”
“What do you want?”
“The key.”
Samuel touched the one beneath his shirt.
Dominic knew.
“Bring it to St. Gabriel.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
The call ended.
Claire handed me the phone.
“I’m going.”
“No.”
She opened her mouth.
I raised a hand.
“I’m not stopping you.”
That surprised her.
“I’m going too.”
Samuel said, “He wants all of us.”
“Yes.”
Victor looked at me.
“Which means?”
May you like
I checked my weapon.
“We disappoint him.”
